Previewing ‘2000 AD Vs Battle Action’: A Classic What-If, 2000 AD Style!
by Richard Bruton
What if classic Brit comic Battle Action and 2000 AD merged in the early ’80s? That’s the delicious premise for this collection of strips reimagining the classic tales of Battle Action with a 2000 AD twist!
These 2000 AD special events are happening every year now. They’ve done zombie takeovers, they’re about to do this year’s Rogue Trooper themed crossover, and now we get the collection bringing together the classic Brit Comic Battle Action crashing into 2000 AD. It’s a hell of a lot of What-If style fun.
It all begins when the powers that be in the publishers decide that Battle Action sales are dropping too fast and they wonder whether a merger with 2000 AD will give it the boost they need…
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And from there we get the first series of strips, merging the characters from Battle Action into 2000 AD. Meaning we get to see what it would look like if the aggro kids of Kids Rule Ok became juves in Mega-City One, imagine what El Mestizo would be like with a distinctly sci-fi twist, see how hard-as-nails agent Dredger would cope in the future, follow Hellman of Hammer Force into hell, and more.
But that’s not all you’ll find in here. Jump forward to 1984 and another jump in the imagination. After the first merger was such a success and future war tales are selling like hot cakes, what about a new monthly concentrating on Judge Dredd but working plenty of Battle Action characters into the Dreddverse – it’s the Megazine with a Battle Action twist.
And that means we see what Cursitor Doom would be like when he meets Dredd and discover the Dreddverse version of Darke’s Mob with the madness of SJS Judge Jonas Darke, Judge killer, in Darke’s Mob. Plus we get Dreddverse versions of the The Rat Pack – The Rad Pack, Lofty’s One-Man Luftwaffe and the Falcon Squadron from Johnny Red appear as Strato Squad, Judge Anderson meets a version of The Fists of Jimmy Chang, before it all comes to an end with more from Darke’s Mob.
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So, 11 brand new tales with 35 creators – writers Ken Niemand, Geoffrey D. Wessel, Chris Weston, Karl Stock, Arthur Wyatt, Gordon Rennie, Mike Carroll, Alec Worley, and Alex De Campi, with art by Simon Coleby, Nick Dyer, Paul Marshall, Jake Lynch, Dan Cornwell, Nick Percival, Kieran McKeown, Staz Johnson, and Patrick Goddard.
Like I say, it’s a whole lot of fun for fans of Brit Comics, seeing just how twisted and different things could have been, the classic What-If fun that we’ve all enjoyed over the years.
Standouts here include Ken Niemand and Simon Coleby‘s Juves Rule Ok, taking the ultra-violence of Kids Rule Ok from Action and really giving it the whole Dreddverse twist, with Coleby’s art just on fire…
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Then there’s Chris Weston giving us El Meztizo, still in New Mexico 1875, but with the added trouble of something very familiar to 2000 AD readers on his shoulder. As you’d expect from Weston, it’s just beautiful stuff…
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Then there’s Niemand again, this time with Nick Percival doing their dark horror Dreddworld that they’re so good at. It’s Dredd, Anderson, and Cursitor Doom up against the very worst Deadworld can throw at Mega-City One, leading us to an ending bringing in SJS Judge Jonas Darke, the Judge Killer, who might just be the only man who can defeat the Deadworld nightmare…
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Like it says, the end of that one runs straight into what is my favourite of all of them in here – Darke’s Mob by Alex De Campi and absolutely brilliantly unhinged art from John McCrea that follows Darke into Deadworld. It is magnificent stuff, McCrea absolutely getting into the madness needed to see the volume out…
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There you go, four highlights for you. Although every strip contributes and makes it one of those great crossovers that 2000 AD really is getting pretty good at these days. Sure, none of them are canon, but they’re all magnificently fun.
2000 AD vs Battle Action is published on 17th July by 2000 AD/Rebellion.
Now, preview time…
JUDGE DREDD: JUVES RULE OK! – Ken Niemand & Simon Coleby, colours by Matt Soffe, letters by Annie Parkhouse
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DEATH GAME 2049 – Geoffrey D. Wessel & Nick Dyer, colours by John Charles, letters by Jim Campbell. Death Game 1999 created by Tom Tully, Costa, and Ian Gibson
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EL MESTIZO: DEMON WITH A SIX-GUN! – by Chris Weston, letters by Simon Bowland. El Mestizo created by Alan Hebden and Carlos Ezquerra
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DREDGER: TIME TO KILL – by Karl Stock and Paul Marshall, colours by Quinton Winter, letters by Annie Parkhouse. Dredger created by Gerry Finley-Day and Geoff Campion
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HELLMAN OF HELL FORCE: FIENDS OF UNGEISTWELT OST – by Arthur Wyatt and Jake Lynch, colours by Jim Boswell, letters by Simon Bowland. Hellman of Hammer Force created by Gerry Finley-Day and Mike Dorey
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MAJOR EAZY: THE TREASURE OF SOLOMON – by Gordon Rennie, Dan Cornwell, colours by Dylan Teague, letters by Jim Campbell. Major Eazy created by Alan Hebden and Carlos Ezquerra
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JUDGE DREDD: RETURN TO BILLY CARTER – Ken Niemand and Nick Percival, letters by Annie Parkhouse.
Cursitor Doom created by Ken Mennell and Eric Bradbury
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THE RAD PACK – by Karl Stock, Kieran McKeown, colours by Quinton Winter, letters by Annie Parkhouse.
The Rat Pack created by Gerry Finley-Day and Carlos Ezquerra
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STRATO SQUAD: CONVOY STRIKE – by Mike Carroll and Staz Johnson, colours by Gary Caldwell, letters by Simon Bowland. Johnny Red created by Tom Tully and Joe Colquhoun. Lofty’s One-Man Luftwaffe created by Pat Mills, John Wagner, Charles Herring, and Paolo Ongaro.
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ANDERSON, PSI-DIVISION: THE WOLF & THE DRAGON – by Alec Worley and Patrick Goddard, colours by Jim Boswell, letters by Jim Campbell. The Fists of Jimmy Chang created by Eric Bradbury and Scott Goodall.
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DARKE’S MOB – by Alex De Campi and John McCrea, colours by Mike Spicer, letters by Annie Parkhouse. Darkie’s Mab created by John Wagner and Mike Western.
